Great running quotes for beginners to pros. Looking for some inspiring running quotes for your cross-country team, track team, or running club? You’ve come to the right place.
After reading our extensive collection of running quotes, you will get so pumped up you’ll probably want to lace up the shoes and go for a run. Enjoy!
Best Running Quotations
Cross Country: No half times, no time outs, no substitutions. It must be the only true sport.
Author Unknown
No one ever drowned in sweat.
Author Unknown
Cross Country — Finally a practical use for golf courses.
Author Unknown
Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up.
It knows it must outrun the fastest lion or it will be killed.
Every morning in Africa, a lion wakes up.
It knows that it must run faster than the slowest gazelle, or it will starve.
It doesn’t matter whether you’re a lion or a gazelle
when the sun comes up you’d better be running.
Author Unknown
The will to win is worthless, without the will to prepare.
Author Unknown
In running, it doesn’t matter whether you come in first, in the middle of the pack, or last. You can say ‘I have finished.’ There is a lot of satisfaction in that.
Author Unknown
Check out A Boston Marathon Feel Good Story
Famous Running Quotes
The true test of a man’s character is what he does when he knows he won’t get caught.
Author Unknown
Sunshine is delicious,
Rain is refreshing,
Wind braces us up,
Snow is exhilarating,
There’s really no such thing as bad weather,
Only different kinds of good weather.
Author Unknown
Some people don’t have the guts for distance racing. The polite term for them is sprinters.
Author Unknown
Your sweat is your fat crying. Keep it up.
Author Unknown (Note: These running quotes are frequently seen on Cross Country team warm-ups shirts, sweatshirts, t-shirts, and other apparel.)
Cross Country philosophy — the faster you run the faster you’re done.
Author Unknown
It’s rude to count people as you pass them. Out loud.
Adidas ad
Those who say that I will lose and am finished will have to run over my body to beat me.
Said Aouita
Champions do not become champions when they win the event, but in the hours, weeks, months and years they spend preparing for it. The victorious performance itself is merely the demonstration of their championship character.
T. Alan Armstrong
The greatest pleasure in life is doing the things people say we cannot do.
Walter Bagehot
You might like 61-year-old farmer wins ultra-marathon.
Cross Country Quotes
Running is a lot like life. Only 10 percent of it is exciting. 90 percent of it is slog and drudge.
Dave Bedford
I think people can handle 150 to 200 miles a week. But something has to give somewhere. If he’s a student, how’s he going to study? He may be at the age of chasing and courtship, and that’s an important form of sport and recreation, too.
Bill Bowerman
My feeling is that any day I am too busy to run is a day that I am too busy.
John Bryant
A lot of people don’t realize that about 98 percent of the running I put in is anything but glamorous: 2 percent joyful participation, 98 percent dedication! It’s a tough formula. Getting out in the forest in the biting cold and the flattening heat, and putting in kilometer after kilometer.
Rob de Castella
Cowards die many times before their deaths, the valiant never taste death but once.
Julius Ceaser
Run hard, be strong, think big!
Percy Cerutty
Roger Bannister Quotes on Running
It is a paradox to say the human body has no ‘limit.’ There must be a limit to the speed at which men can run. I feel this may be around 3:30 for the mile. However, another paradox remains – if an athlete manages to run 3:30, another runner could be found to marginally improve on that time.
Sir Roger Bannister
Sport is not about being wrapped up in cotton wool. Sport as about adapting to the unexpected and being able to modify plans at the last minute – Sport, like all life, is about taking risks.
Sir Roger Bannister
If I faltered, there would be no arms to hold me and the world would be a cold and forbidding place.
Sir Roger Bannister
Here’s a fun article on running: How One Kenyan Tribe Produces the World’s Best Runners
Good Running Quotations
The nine inches right here; set it straight and you can beat anybody in the world.
Sebastian Coe, holding his fingers up to his head
The great thing about athletics is that it’s like poker, sometimes you know what’s in your hand and it may be a load of rubbish, but you’ve got to keep up the front.
Sebastian Coe
Tomorrow is another day, and there will be another battle!
Sebastian Coe
Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.
Confucius
To win without risk is to triumph without glory.
Pierre Corneille
Funny Running Quotes
All it takes is all you got.
Marc Davis
Good things come slow – especially in distance running.
Bill Dellinger
Run like hell and get the agony over with.
Clarence DeMar
The five S’s of sports training are Stamina, Speed, Strength, Skill, and Spirit;
but the greatest of these is Spirit.
Ken Doherty
The only tactics I admire are do-or-die.
Herb Elliott
I tell our runners to divide the race into thirds. Run the first part with your head, the middle part with your personality, and the last part with your heart.
Mike Fanelli
Marathon Quotes
Marathoning is like cutting yourself unexpectedly. You dip into the pain so gradually that the damage is done before you are aware of it. Unfortunately, when awareness comes, it is excruciating.
John Farrington
Don’t bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors.
Try to be better than yourself.
William Faulkner
Somewhere in the world, someone is training when you are not. When you race him, he will win.
Tom Fleming’s Boston Marathon training sign on his wall
The body does not want you to do this. As you run, it tells you to stop, but the mind must be strong. You always go too far for your body. You must handle the pain with strategy…It is not age; it is not a diet – It is the will to succeed.
Jacqueline Gareau
You have a choice. You can throw in the towel, or you can use it to wipe the sweat off of your face.
Gatorade ad
The will to win means nothing without the will to prepare.
Juma Ikangaa
Famous Quotes
Vision without action is a daydream. Action without vision is a nightmare.
Japanese Proverb
It is true that speed kills. In the distance running, it kills anyone who does not have it.
Brooks Johnson
If you run 100 miles a week, you can eat anything you want — Why? Because
(a) you’ll burn all the calories you consume,
(b) you deserve it, and
(c) you’ll be injured soon and back on a restricted diet anyway.
Don Kardong
The thing about Pre is that he ran as hard as he could every race, and if you were going to beat him, you were going to have to run harder than he did.
Bob Kennedy
When you are an up-and-coming runner in the U.S. and making some breakthroughs in distances, Pre is still the man that you are compared to. It’s always based on Pre.
Bob Kennedy
If you want to make God laugh, just try and make plans for the future.
Ron Litzler
Running is a big question mark that’s there each and every day. It asks you, ‘Are you going to be a wimp, or are you going to be strong today?’
Peter Maher
I haven’t seen too many American distance men on the international scene willing to take risks. I saw some U.S. women in Barcelona willing to risk more than men. The Kenyans risk. Steve Prefontaine risked. I risked – I went through the first half of the Tokyo race just a second off my best 5000 times.
Billy Mills
Inspirational Quotes
Only think of two things — the report of the pistol and the tape. When you hear one, run like hell until you break the other.
Sam Mussabini
Mind is everything: muscle – pieces of rubber. All that I am, I am because of my mind.
Paavo Nurmi
Now if you are going to win any battle you have to do one thing. You have to make the mind run the body. Never let the body tell the mind what to do. The body will always give up. It is always tired morning, noon, and night. But the body is never tired if the mind is not tired. When you were younger, the mind could make you dance all night, and the body was never tired. You’ve always got to make the mind take over and keep going.
George S. Patton
Workouts are like brushing my teeth; I don’t think about them, I just do them. The decision has already been made.
Patti Sue Plumer
A race is a work of art that people can look at and be affected in as many ways as they’re capable of understanding.
Steve Prefontaine
A lot of people run a race to see who’s the fastest. I run to see who has the most guts.
Steve Prefontaine
My whole feeling in terms of racing is that you have to be very bold. You sometimes have to be aggressive and gamble.
Bill Rodgers
Tip: These running quotes make great Instagram captions and Facebook posts.
Motivational Quotes
Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.
Will Rogers
When you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on.
Theodore Roosevelt
I had as many doubts as anyone else. Standing on the starting line, we’re all cowards.
Alberto Salazar
The marathon is like a bullfight. There are two ways to kill a bull, for instance. There is the easy way, for one. But all the great matadors end up either dead or mauled because them killing the bull is not nearly as important as how they kill the bull. They always approach the bull at the greatest risk to themselves, and I admire that. In the marathon, likewise, there are two ways to win. There’s the easy way if all you care about is winning. You hang back and risk nothing. Then kick and try to nip the leaders at the end. Or you can push, challenge the others, make it an exciting race, risking everything. Maybe you lose, but as for me, I’d rather run a gutsy race, pushing all the way and lose, than run a conservative, easy race only for a win.
Alberto Salazar
It is a rough road that leads to the heights of greatness.
Seneca
Listen to your body. Do not be a blind and deaf tenant.
Dr. George Sheehan
The long run is what puts the tiger in the cat.
Bill Squires
Do a little more each day than you think you possibly can.
Lowell Thomas
I prefer to remain in blissful ignorance of the opposition. That way, I’m not frightened by anyone’s reputation.
Ian Thompson
Believe in yourself, know yourself, deny yourself, and be humble.
John Treacy
For High School Runners
Good judgment is the result of experience. Experience is the result of bad judgment.
Mark Twain
Stadiums are for spectators. We runners have nature and that is much better.
Juha Vaatainen
Dream barriers look very high until someone climbs them. They are not barriers anymore.
Lasse Viren
Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome while trying to succeed.
Booker T. Washington
Running is real and relatively simple — but it ain’t easy.
Mark Will-Weber
Once you’re beat mentally, you might as well not even go to the starting line.
Todd Williams
We are different, in essence, from other men. If you want to win something, run 100 meters. If you want to experience something, run a marathon.
Emil Zatopek
Do you have some ideas for great running quotes? Send them our way. Use “running quotes” as the subject headline. Thanks for providing us ideas on running quotes!
Uplifting Quotes
The miracle isn’t that I finished. The miracle is that I had the courage to start.
John Bingham
Run often. Run long. But never outrun your joy of running.
Julie Isphording
Our running shoes have magic in them. The power to transform a bad day into a good day; frustration into speed; self-doubt into confidence; chocolate cake into muscle.
Mina Samuels
If you don’t have answers to your problems after a four-hour run, you ain’t getting them.
Christopher McDougall
Everyone in life is looking for a certain rush. Racing is where I get mine.
John Trautmann
Never underestimate the power that one good workout can have on your mind. Keeping the dream alive is half the battle. Kara Goucher
I often hear someone say I’m not a real runner. We are all runners, some just run faster than others. I never met a fake runner.
Bart Yasso
Encouraging Quotes
Run when you can, walk if you have to, crawl if you must; just never give up.
Dean Karnazes
We all have dreams. But in order to make dreams come into reality, it takes an awful lot of determination, dedication, self-discipline, and effort.
Jesse Owens
Never limit where running can take you. I mean that geographically, spiritually, and of course, physically.
Bart Yasso
Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional.
Haruki Murakami
I always loved running…it was something you could do by yourself, and under your own power. You could go in any direction, fast or slow as you wanted, fighting the wind if you felt like it, seeking out new sights just on the strength of your feet and the courage of your lungs.
Jesse Owens
Running is alone time that lets my brain unspool the tangles that build up over days. I run, pound it out on the pavement, channel that energy into my legs, and when I’m done with my run, I’m done with it.
Rob Haneisen
It doesn’t matter how fast or how far. It doesn’t matter if today is your first day or if you’ve been running for twenty years. There is no test to pass, no license to earn, no membership card to get. You just run.
John Bingham
Energizing Quotes
Everyone in life is looking for a certain rush. Racing is where I get mine.
John Trautmann
The human spirit is indomitable. No one can ever say you must not run faster than this or jump higher than that. There will never be a time when the human spirit will not be able to better existing records.
Sir Roger Bannister
There is magic in misery.Just ask any runner.
Dean Karnazes
There is something magical about running; after a certain distance, it transcends the body. Then a bit further, it transcends the mind. A bit further yet, and what you have before you, laid bare, is the soul.
Kristin Armstrong
The obsession with running is really an obsession with the potential for more and more life.
George Sheehan
If you are losing faith in human nature, go out and watch a marathon.
Kathrine Switzer
You can say, ‘I have finished.’ There is a lot of satisfaction in that.
Fred Lebow
Get going … walk if you have to, but finish the damned race.
Ron Hill
Inspirational Quotes and Sayings
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